I got some of the sharpie liquid pencils, size .05 (Didn't see any .07's, don't know if they just didn't have them, or if they don't make them in that size yet). First of all- they write decent. Not great. Not awful. Decent. You have to push down on the lead fairly hard, and that's how you can get variations in lay-down of lead; shading by smearing with your finger doesn't work, as it'll just erase what you put down. Erasing-wise, they erase clearly and cleanly.

Tested it on sketchbook paper, the results were okay, not horrid but not super great; but you won't have to worry about your image running off. Worked a lot better on notebook paper; and has worked fine for sketching on primed canvass.

I found the pencils in officemax, hidden in a display by the office supplies; not among the regular pencils, and with a bunch of the newer sharpie pens, so if you're looking for them, you might have to ask if you don't see them right away- they might've been put someplace odd.

To create new characters, Kidrobot's designers first sketch them ugg stiefelusing Adobe Illustrator, the off-the-shelf drawing program that goes for $500 a copy. They produce six views of each toy, plus blowups of detailed areas like eyelashes. Then they move to Basecamp...a Web-based application that links everyone who works on Kidrobot's toys — from its New York City design team to manufacturers in China. Established toy companies spend tens of thousands ugg stiefelof dollars shuttling designers around the world to iron out product details. Kidrobot pays about $100 per month for Basecamp.

Once Budnitz is satisfied with the initial designs, his team uses Basecamp to share Illustrator files with engineers in China who transform them into clay or wax models. One week later the models arrive in New York. With Basecamp acting as the messenger, the two sides repeat the back-and-forth until the toys meet Budnitz's approval. The final design — along with specs ugg bootsfor paint and form-fitting packaging — is then uploaded to Basecamp, and 30 days later finished toys march off production lines in China. "I can have as many as 40 toys in various stages of production at one time, and we can still manage all of these projects with just a few people," Budnitz says. "It's stupid simple."